Hindi literary magazine Hans launched the first edition of English translations of selected works from its earlier editions at the World Book Fair under way at Pragati Maidan on Sunday.
Author Mark Tully and novelist Mridula Garg present at the launch lauded the magazines illustrious history while writers and translators, who worked on the edition, spoke about Hindi literature and the difficulties in carrying out translations.
Rachna Yadav, managing director of the magazine and daughter of erstwhile writer and editor, Rajendra Yadav said that the English translations were an effort to expose audiences outside of the ‘Hindi belt’, especially in metro cities about the wealth of contemporary Hindi fiction. Currently, the magazine has a circulation of about 10,000 issues, she said.
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The contents
This first English issue of the magazine carries 13 stories written by authors such as Mannu Bhandari, Mridula Garg , Uday Prakash and others, curated from the monthly editions published over five years between 1986 and 1990. Ms. Yadav said that subsequent issues, which will be published annually in the series will carry stories from the next five-year period. “Translations can produce either a dead duck or a dark horse. We hope this to be the latter and see success,” said one of the translators.
Speaking about the effort that went into the issue, Ghanshyam Sharma another translator said that it wasn’t enough to simply know the language, but one had to be soaked in the culture it came from, which made it a sensitive exercise.
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